Infinity Pool (2023)

Director/writer Brandon Cronenberg, son of David, has created this complete bonkers two-hour film a couple of years back in which, being fairly thick, I couldn't work out what on earth was going on or what it all meant! But you will, no doubt, do better than me and not have to resort to YouTube reviewers to explain it for you!

It's the story of a strange resort in a fictitious country which seemingly locks their guests within their compound because it's too dangerous to roam outside because of poverty, crime, no consequences and a breakdown of civilised society. (I seem to remember my sister telling me that they had to do this when they visited Cuba some years back.) Our two main characters, James Foster, played by Alexander Skarsgård (The Legend of Tarzan, True Blood) and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) have headed off there to get away from it all.

He is a writer, with one book under his belt, but has suffered with Writer's Block since it was published 6 years prior. He's looking for inspiration. James is not wealthy and Em's family are loaded. Her dad doesn't like James so Em purposely married him to get back at him. So there's that bubbling agenda eating away at their relationship to start with - and we haven't even got to the story yet! When they arrive, they bump into Gabi Bauer, played by Mia Goth (Pearl, X, MaXXXine), and her husband, Alban, played by Jalil Lespert. Gabi flirts with James telling him what a fan she was of his book and the four of them start doing 'couply' things together.

One day, Alban and Gabi have arranged to borrow a car from a friend and the four of them head off to an isolated beach/cove, even though they have been warned to not go out of the compound. They have a great day, Gabi flirts even more with James, then, he being the only one sober enough to drive, takes the wheel. On the way back to the compound there's a major incident on which the story turns, as they run into and kill a local farmer. Next thing we know is the following morning, police banging on the door and James and Em being dragged off to the local nick!

And this is where the story turns on its head into something otherworldly and bizarre as we learn what the resort of La Tolqa is, and what goes on there, all previous, suddenly up in the air. At this point it's hard to go on without spoilers, so to quote IMDb, we start to see the resort's perverse subculture of hedonistic tourism, reckless violence and surreal horrors. The boundaries of identity and morality are blurred through a gruesome kinda sci-fi loophole. Just one teaser for you, it seems that the local law requires "an eye for an eye" when wrong is done one to another, so someone is looking for just that! But it's not quite as simple as that and again the story switches towards the surreal and bonkers territory as we find out about a 'loophole' for wealthy tourists to wriggle out of the barbaric revenge culture!

We then have a long section of the film where the above is played out, tripping on drugs, mindless violence, executions, a bunch of sci-fi stuff, memory-meddling and all sorts of nudity, orgies and horror. At this point, the film is often presents in a surreal 1960s trippy fashion! As time goes on, James gets into what is going on but Em is scared shitless, so opts, eventually, to leave. This leaves James to pursue the experience with Gabi, Alban - and a group of other similarly-wealthy tourists, which gets more and more bizarre.

Eventually, James starts to question it all and tries to pull himself out and away from what's going on around him. But by this stage, it seems like it might be too late! There's lots of symbolism yet to play out and the climax of the story and finale are actually quite surprising as all is revealed, the vacation ends and rainy season arrives!

We certainly see plenty of nudity, gore and violence in the film but the actors seem to do a good-enough job to work with the whacky material involved. Mia Goth stands out as the sultry seductress turning into homicidal maniac at times, nurturing friend and lover at others. Skarsgård plays the lead convincingly, moving from initial apathy to horror to enjoyment and back to horror and apathy, looping. It's an interesting set with lovely scenery - and the various special effects done well-enough.

Anyway, be warned - it's completely bonkers and for anyone looking for that, they will be delighted. Seems to be available now on various streaming services. Nutty!

Europa Report (2013)

Still on my quest to see more of Karolina Wydra I headed off across space with her and the crew of Europa One, as they become the first (fictitious of course) humans to go to Jupiter's fourth largest moon, Europa. It's basically shot in a 'found footage' style, becoming pretty much a sci-fi thriller.

The 'report' bit is because the story is presented non-linearly, framed by interviews with mission control staff back on earth who are watching/reviewing as long as they can - because 6 months into the journey a solar storm knocks out the ship’s communication with them so they can track it no more. So we're then pretty much solely onboard with the crew and living their adventure.

As you will imagine, not everything goes smoothly, systems go wrong, unexpected events occur with potentially catastrophic outcomes which they have to deal with, drawing on their experience, technical knowledge and guts. They eventually make it to the surface of the moon on their landing craft, despite all the above - but landing in the wrong place on the surface - they have no choice other than to carry on and try to explore what they find, where they are. 

They manage to use a robot drill to carve a hole through the ice and once underneath, we probably have the most interesting part of the film to be honest, as its camera starts to explore the water beneath, looking up at the ice, with the crew agog as they hope/expect to find signs of life. Wydra's character gets a suit on and heads out with lab gear on top of the ice and excitedly does indeed find some sort of algae or unicellular organism - so yes, proof of life! However, while she's doing it, a sinister blue light appears under the ice and everyone suddenly gets concerned about radiation.

One thing leads to another and the crew reckon they'd better hot-foot it out and off of the surface, back to Europa One. Of course, not much goes to plan and, again, they have to deal with one crisis after another. I won't spoil any of the outcomes in case you've not seen it but it's certainly worth the wait, if you can stand the 'found footage' style of filmmaking, for the grand finale.

It's pretty well acted by the cast, though it doesn't feel much like anyone's trying too hard. There are various back stories threaded in about people's families back home and what they're going to do when they see them again, questions about people having been short of oxygen in part of the chaos who might be losing their grip on reality - the usual mix of a good claustrophobic sci-fi thriller, fairly low-budget feel, with a closed set and controlled environment.

Director Sebastián Cordero leads Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyqvist, Christian Camargo, Daniel Wu, Karolina Wydra (Pluribus, After) and Anamaria Marinca as the core six of the crew, with the (now) late Isiah Whitlock Jr. amongst the number back on earth. It's a decent little thriller that passes just over 90 minutes nicely - not terribly exciting - more, well, scientifically interesting, I guess. Worth a look.

Death of a Unicorn (2025)

This is basically a (mostly) unfunny American comedy. There are a few laughs here and there but if it hadn't been for Pint-sized, Peg-doll Jenna Ortega, I almost certainly would have given it up on it. Good grief, she's tiny. It's not really a 'family' comedy however because they have decided to make it somewhat adult in terms of gore and language.

The story follows our Dimpled Darling and her dad who are going to some rich peoples' house, headed up by Richard E Grant's Odell character and his wife Téa Leoni, Belinda, in the middle of nowhere, for him to seal a deal and get a lucrative contract. On the way from the airport, they drive into a unicorn running in the road. Not knowing what to do, she touches the horn and gets herself and other-worldly high just before he attempts to bludgeon it to death with a crowbar! They chuck it in the car (for some reason) and complete their journey.

When they get to the house, business pursues but eventually the unicorn wakes in the car and breaks free. The family shoot it through the head. Then start to realise that the magical powers of the horn and blood can make them a fortune as a cure for cancer - starting with Odell - after seeing it cure Ridley (Jenna)'s acne and dad's eyesight. Greedy humans will stop at nothing to make more money - and revengeful unicorns, for blood, guts, limbs and death!

So yes, mummy and daddy unicorn go on the rampage in order to pay the nasty humans a lesson, usually gory death, whilst looking out for the 'innocent' dad and daughter combo (seemingly forgetting that dad did lots of bludgeoning earlier) in amongst nods to the original Alien film!

As you'd expect, it's all very silly but the good cast play their roles perfectly well, it's nicely directed by Alex Scharfman, shot and produced, but I did think that the CGI could have been done better. The gory bits seemed to be done well, people being ripped apart, disemboweled and more, but the full-size unicorn family running around weren't terribly convincing.

There's a lovely Hollywood ending for everyone to enjoy, as you'd expect from an American comedy, gore or no gore, as the unicorns join force one more time to bring various beings back to life and even ensure that none of the nice humans have to face trial for the bloodbath they can't explain! Very daft fantasy fun. I think it's on most streaming services now.

After (2012)

Much like Carol in Pluribus, I think I've developed the hots for Karolina Wydra (I think it's that Ana de Armas look, especially back in 2012 here) so thought I'd check out another of her titles and stumbled into this kind of fantasy darkish grim romance/horror. Now available on a few streaming services but yes, as I write, fourteen years old so probably all over the place.

Ironically, given the above, Wydra's character's name is Ana - yes, even spelt that way! She is travelling on a bus back to her hometown of Pearl, America, when the only other person on the bus (well, presumably apart from the driver) starts chatting her up. She at first rejects Freddy's advances politely, but then begins to warm to him. Can't imagine why as he turns out to be an annoying, sexist, childish character, into comic book art creation. But anyway, that's for later. Played by Steven Strait (The Expanse), - and doing well if going for childish and annoying! Anyway, just at this point the bus crashes and we head into The Twilight Zone!

Next thing we know is that Ana wakes up at home but her clock tells her that she has overslept and she's late for her work as a nurse at the hospital. She races off there but starts to realise that there's nobody else there. How it took her quite so long, I don't know - as she must have travelled through empty streets to get there, but still! So there's no phones, but electricity and other essential services are working. Just no people! She starts to look for signs of life, anywhere - and eventually thinks to go to Freddy's house - where he is, similarly wondering what's going on (and being even more childish and annoying blasting out loud music)!

So the pair of them start to wander the streets and buildings trying to work out what is happening - still not a soul to be found. However, what they do discover is that there's a black cloud surrounding the town, The Darkness, which is, he works out, creeping inwards and will engulf everything within 3 days. As they continue to explore, they both get flashbacks (ghosts from their pasts in the town) which seem very real from a specific day in 1992.

Then a multi-toothed monster creature thingie turns up after they find a door which will only open with a specific key, a few yards into The Darkness, which they decide to explore. They work out that this door and monster are things that Freddie previously drew as a comic character and situation in the past. I'm sure you won't expect a medal when you work out already that not is all as it seems and that the bus crash back at the start has a huge bearing on the content of this story! Three days? Fog closing in?

So yes, you can imagine the ending as all the ghosts of the past get represented in the storyline and, well, if you haven't worked out what's going on by then, poor you! There is an ending which explains pretty much all as well as a post-credits scene which has them both back on the bus, like at the beginning, but with it full of people and them clearly 'together'.

The film was directed and written by Ryan Whitaker (though credited as Ryan Smith). The acting is alright but it's mostly a two-person show. It's quite nicely paced, decently-enough shot and produced - and no doubt enjoyable for those who like fairly shallow dark fantasy stuff. Not me - I kept looking at my watch from about halfway through the 90 minutes - or focusing on Karolina!

Bambi: The Reckoning (2025)

This is the fourth installment in the Twisted Childhood Universe (TCU), following the Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey films, which we covered in our Projector Room Podcast and one of which I even reviewed here on my blog. Directed by Dan Allen, it transforms the classic woodland tale into a gruesome creature feature.

The film opens with an animated dark reimagining of Bambi’s origins. After witnessing his mother's death at the hands of hunters as a fawn, Bambi grows up and finds a mate, Faline. However, tragedy strikes again when Faline is killed by a truck owned by a pharmaceuticals firm, who are secretly dumping toxic waste in the forest. In the chaos, Bambi's offspring (a young fawn) is kidnapped by the company's employees. Driven by grief, Bambi drinks from the contaminated, toxic river water. This causes him to mutate into a monstrous, vengeful beast with jagged shark teeth, glowing eyes and massive, lethal antlers!

The story here follows a woman and her son who are traveling to a house in the woods to meet her estranged husband. However, their taxi is attacked and overturned by the mutated Bambi. The driver is crushed, bones popping out of limbs all over, but the woman and boy escape and get to the house.

Turns out that the husband is not only a bad one, and worse father to the boy, but is the very cad responsible for killing Faline and dumping the toxic waste! He and a team of his buddies are in the woods specifically to track and kill the mutated creature that Bambi has become. We then get into the meat of the gore, pun intended, as the bonkers Bambi starts picking off nasty husband and his mates and we're treated to various graphic deaths in the mix - in some creative and interesting ways too! In the middle of this, a bunch of rabbits join in, who are equally armed with shark-like teeth, having a bit of fun of their own - so I guess they drank at the pool too!

All of this is actually quite funny and it feels like the people making this, like with Winnie the Pooh, are just having fun and it's all tongue-in-cheek. So it turns out that nutty Bambi is after its kidnapped fawn which is in a cage, and you no doubt imagine what might happen, which characters survive and which don't - based on how nasty or nice they are, doing the wrong thing or right.

It's all bonkers fun but, again, like the others, it's shame that they didn't have some more money to throw at the special effects which were, mostly, laughable. The script is diabolical, the acting (I'm sure, on purpose) is equally bad and the only thing I really found to be decently done was some of the interior photography and lighting, for some reason!

Post-credits, we see Bambi will Return as he is apparently set to appear in the upcoming crossover film Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble! More madness. This one is on Amazon Prime if you fancy a giggle.

PodHubUK Podcasts for the Month of December 2025

 

...a roundup of our month of podcasting. Links to the team, communities and podcast homes on the net at the foot, so scroll down!

Whatever Works

Episode 234 - Wee Willie Winkie!
Monday 1st December

Aidan and I are back for December's outing and first out of the gate with oodles of drivel, tomfoolery and japes in the shape of deciphering Whatever Works in our lives and yours! This time we oil-fill our radiators, negotiate a 4-minute erection, elevate and squirt a cat or two, belt-up from further away, light a candle for cheaper warm coffee and wrap it all up with some Merriment! Now available from the usual places. This will be our last for 2025 so thanks to all for your 2025 interest and contributions!

The Camera Creations Podcast

Episode 12 - Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS)!

Wednesday 3rd December

The team are back again this time to talk about all sorts of stuff relating to cameras and photography but particularly this time to see if there's a cure for the lure! And we have a GAS! News about what's droolworthy finds a space too - and a book or two for you to buy.

The Tech Addicts 2025 Podcast

Season 6, Episode 1 - Jamming Starlink

Sunday 7th December

Peep-ho! Gareth and I are back again and this time we chat about Seagate eyeing up 55TB+ hard drives with HAMR while a Chinese simulation shows how 1,000 drones could jam Starlink. A UK court OKs Microsoft license reselling, Linux Mint 22.3 “Zena” is Christmas-bound, but Crucial exits the consumer RAM market. Plus, new AI-focused Android PC OS “Aluminium” is coming, alongside GEEKOM laptops, the Nothing Phone (3), and a TCL NxtPaper phone! Bargain Basement wraps things up as always.

The Phones Show Chat Podcast

Episode 875 - Gav's Garmin Gala!

Monday 8th December

Joe and I welcome Gavin Fabiani-Laymond this week and invite him to take the floor, pretty much. Bit of an experiment to see if this is a format listeners like/prefer over the usual structure. If not always, maybe now and again - so do let us have your feedback. We chat about the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, Garmin Epix Pro Gen 2 51mm, insta360 X5, the Xiaomi Interconnectivity App, Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Nutracheck amongst lots more stuff.

Projector Room

Episode 199 - Dynamite Shorts
Wednesday 10th December

Gareth, Allan and I are here again with another look at all things film, cinema and TV. This time we experience Something Wild with our Last Embrace, Save the Green Planet with CCD Bugonia overtones, discover Stranger Things in A House of Dynamite and certainly Don't Look Away from Concrete Shorts on YouTube!

The Tech Addicts 2025 Podcast

Season 6, Episode 2 - Looking for Ladda

Sunday 14th December

Gareth and I are back with you again for some more tech twaddle! This week, a new Australian social media ban impacts millions of youth, while AI chatbot use rises among teens. Meanwhile, new tech includes the Ayaneo Pocket Play, a PlayStation 30th Anniversary watch, the Tiiny AI Pocket Lab mini PC, the upgraded Sony Walkman NW-ZX900, Ikea’s smart home AA Ladda battery system and the forthcoming Quickshot II. So do join us and get stuck in!

The Phones Show Chat Podcast

Episode 876 - Nothing But Magic!

Monday 15th December

Joe and I return with the promised sneak-in show as we catch up on topics not yet covered, or in more depth. Honor, Moto, OnePlus, Pixel, Samsung, Nothing, Poco, Nubia, Jolla, Fairphone - with little space for the mainstream! Oh well, we enjoyed our chat anyway!

The Camera Creations Podcast

Episode 13 - Travelling with Gear

Thursday 18th December

Chris C, Ian and Charlie join me this time as we share thoughts about travel, insurance, risk and packing/carrying. In amongst the other stuff of course as we look at some more great photos from the panel, lust after more gear and look at what's new and around the corner too.

The Phones Show Chat Podcast

Episode 877 - A Festive Mix'n'Match

Monday 22nd December

Joe and I are back with a Krimbo Kiss of a show as we welcome back Steve for the first time since he took a step back from the front line of PSC podding. Great to catch up with him, find out what he's being doing in the meantime and which devices and services he's favouring. Plus some time for a few other bits'n'pieces including Joe with hands-on with the new Magic8 Pro, me with the Fairphone 5 and the Photo of the Month winner for November, being our own Chris C.

Projector Room

Episode 200 - Allan's Festive Finale
Wednesday 24th December

Woohoo! Our 200th show! But hang on a cotton-pickin' moment as it seems that every silver lining has a cloud and yes, Allan is stepping back after this one to pop in now and then as a guest due to his busy life. It's been a great ride, so thanks to him for being involved for the last 7 years. In this show, Gareth, Allan and I twinkle our festive lights with our favourite Xmas Animation and TV Show/Comedy Xmas Specials - that sort of thing. Some other stuff as well, so do join us. Special thanks to Aidan for sounds. Thanks to you, too, for your interest and support/engagement during 2025. Gareth and I will be back in a couple of weeks - so yes, it's Happy New Year too, I guess!

Whatever Works

Episode 235 - Festive Firkings!
Thursday 25th December

Surprise! You didn't think that Aidan  and I would leave you lingering until January's scheduled show did you? What? With all these bell-jingling opportunities afoot?! No - we're here with you again pre-roast dinners and Santa appearances for Aidan. This time we look into our stockings for festive fillers, expunge xmas myths, talk about xmas music, our highlights of 2025 and oodles more! We'll even tell you where Japanese people have their xmas lunch! So chuck those crappy presents to one side and join us for an hour to make your day - Ho ho ho! Festive cheer to all!

The Podcasts (PodHubUK)

Phones Show Chat (PSC) - Whatever Works - Chewing Gum for the Ears - Projector Room - Tech Addicts - Camera Creations - Nomad Tech Project

The MeWe Community Groups (follow the links to join up)
Phones Show Chat (PSC) - Whatever Works - Chewing Gum for the Ears - Projector Room - PSC Photos - PSC Videos - PSC Classifieds - PSC Health - Coffee Time - Camera Creations - Tech Addicts

The Team
Ted Salmon - Steve Litchfield - Aidan Bell - Gareth Myles - Joe Hickey - Chris Clayton - Ian Bundey - Charlie Winston - Sam Ventimiglia - Ed Hause

Herd (2023)

This is a little low-budget zombie-thriller which comes across mostly as a made-for-TV project. I guess it might be. It stretches itself in every which way to take in all sorts of sub-stories and historic elements relating to the characters, via flashbacks, that it really would have done much better to leave out and just focus on the thrills.

We have two city-dwelling women at the centre of the story who are in a relationship, Jamie and Alex. Jamie has suffered some previous trauma which is coming between them and threatening their life together. So they go on a canoeing camping trip to try and patch things up. Whilst they are out there, squabbling, unhappy, Alex overturns the canoe, they end up in the drink and Alex breaks her leg.

They're in the middle of nowhere so start hobbling together along a road towards civilisation. As they, do it becomes obvious that the 'virus' which they thought they had left behind in the city, turning people into zombies, is much more rampant out in the sticks. They stumble into some aggressive hillbilly men, who look willing to shoot Alex on sight, assuming she has the virus. They wriggle out of it, explaining about the broken leg and end up being welcomed to the makeshift home/centre these folk have thrown together.

They are heavily guarding their centre as there's another bunch of militia types who seem to be wanting to invoke martial law and are equally threatening, wanting a share of the goods that our hillbilly types have lifted from various local outlets. Plenty of standoffs, then, and aggressive, threatening posturing between groups. Turns out that the ex-leader of this group (who is now dead as he got infected and shot himself) was Jamie's dad - who abused her as a child, so she wanted revenge. Bit late, really! Oh, then there's the fact that the girls don't dare tell the hillbilly types that they are 'together' because what's liberal in the city, isn't out here. (I told you there were far too many plot-threads!)

Anyway, during a skirmish with some fairly unconvincing zombies - who seem to leave you alone if you don't threaten them and stay still, Alex gets 'infected' and, only known to Jamie, starts to show signs of 'turning' into a zombie. They both try to keep it hidden, which becomes more difficult the more it progresses. In the end they try to make a run for it which brings even more chaos and posturing between the groups, as we head towards the feeble finale and laughable story outcomes.

It's not a bad little film, I guess - and passes and hour and a half nicely enough - though you'll forget all about it ten minutes after the credits roll! It'll certainly not win any awards for anything, though the two girls in the leads do a decent-enough job. I guess. I don't know any of the people involved in this from director Steven Pierce down to any of the actors - though depending on what kind of American TV shows and middling films you watch, you might. It's available on a few streaming services but I wouldn't suggest paying anything - wait 'til it's 'included' somewhere if you fancy a go!